Bio

Petr Mrazek Bio

Born in Ostrava in northeast Slovakia near the Poland border, Mrazek played a season in the Czech League for HC Vitkovice before migrating to Canada. A 12-win first season for Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League in 2009-10 was enough for the Detroit Red Wings to select Mrazek in the fifth round (No. 141) in the 2010 NHL Draft.

The shrewdness of that selection became only too apparent over the following two junior seasons as Mrazek won 63 games.

Born in Ostrava in northeast Slovakia near the Poland border, Mrazek played a season in the Czech League for HC Vitkovice before migrating to Canada. A 12-win first season for Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League in 2009-10 was enough for the Detroit Red Wings to select Mrazek in the fifth round (No. 141) in the 2010 NHL Draft.

The shrewdness of that selection became only too apparent over the following two junior seasons as Mrazek won 63 games.

The 2012 World Junior Championship, where he was voted the tournament' top goaltender, further enhanced his stock. Propping up an unusually weak Czech Republic team, Mrazek posted a 2-3 record, but that didn't begin do his performance justice. The highlight was a 52-stop, 5-2 victory against the United States.

Mrazek's 43 saves in the quarterfinals weren't enough to defeat Russia, which advanced to the championship game, but a .928 save percentage and 2.49 goals-against average earned him the Best Goaltender Award and a selection to the First All-Star Team.

After spending most of the 2014-15 season as the back-up to Jimmy Howard, Mrazek's numbers for the 2015-16 season (27-16-6, 2.33, .921) established him as the goaltender of the future. During one stretch, beginning on Jan. 22, 2015 with a tidy 19-shot, 3-0 shutout against the Buffalo Sabres, Mrazek went on a 10-4-2 tear.

Though Howard started the first two games of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Mrazek played the final three, but the Red Wings were eliminated in five games by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Still, the Red Wings had seen the best of Mrazek, and on July 27, 2016, signed him to a two-year contract extension.